People with disabilities celebrate special prom in Elizabeth

Marcella Truppa and Mark Bloom have attended every Community Access Unlimited prom together.

Prom Night is a once-in-a-lifetime moment when high school seniors don gowns and tuxedos and dive into a dream night of romance. Yet far too often people with developmental disabilities are excluded from the magic, due to either alternative education or simply being outside the mainstream.

Members of Community Access Unlimited (CAU) enjoy prom night again and again, most recently celebrating the annual event this past Friday at the Peterstown Community Center in Elizabeth. More than 100 CAU members with disabilities came together as couples and singles to dance, eat and laugh the night away.

"It's a great event, put together by our members for our members," said Rolando Zorrilla, assistant executive director of developmental disabilities support services at CAU. "They plan everything, from the color scheme to the music. It's a great night to unwind and relive their youth."

Prom is sponsored by CAU's Helping Hands self-advocacy group.

"A lot of people didn't have a prom when they went to school," said Gary Rubin, an officer of Helping Hands who helped start the prom tradition. "It's a way for them to finally go to prom."

Megan Modero and Stephen Drake have been CAU members for five years and have attended prom as a couple for the last four.

"Prom is all about love and excitement and dancing and being around friends and having the best time of your life - again," Modero said.

Mark Bloom and Marcella Truppa are a long-time couple who also serve as Helping Hands officers and have attended every prom.

"Prom is all about having fun, having people dancing and enjoying themselves," Bloom said. He recalled attending prom in high school and coming away disappointed.

"I didn't like it. I was by myself and didn't enjoy it very much," he said, noting that the CAU prom is different because it is open to everyone.

Myrta Rosa attends the prom by herself each year but is hardly alone. She was leading a conga line in her walker when the party was getting started.

"It's a nice way to celebrate everything we have accomplished," she said. "It's a night we all get together and enjoy the evening."

Zorrilla noted that Prom Night is another example of CAU creating an atmosphere that enables it's members to fully enjoy life in an interactive community setting and experience activities and celebrations members of other human services organizations often miss. In addition to Prom Night CAU hosts Couples Night, an annual night of celebration hosted by CAU executive director Sidney Blanchard. This as an advantage members of CAU have enjoyed for decades and an advantage new members coming to the agency are experiencing for the first time, he added.

"This is the CAU Advantage," he said. "Since we've been growing so much as an agency new members walk in a go, 'wow.' There's a wow factor that is new every year. Older members love to attend and newer members who never had a chance to go to prom get to go.

CAU provides support programs and services to people with disabilities and youth served under the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to enable them to live independently in the community, in areas including housing, vocational and life-skills training, education, advocacy and recreation.

Community Access Unlimited (CAU), celebrating its 35th anniversary, supports people with special needs in achieving real lives in the community. CAU provides support and gives a voice to adults and youth who traditionally have little support and no voice in society. CAU helps people with housing, life skills, employment, money management, socialization and civic activities. CAU also supports opportunities for advocacy through training in assertiveness, decision-making and civil rights. CAU serves more than 5,000 individuals each year.

For more information about CAU and its services, contact us by phone at 908-354-3040, online at caunj.org or by mail at 80 West Grand St., Elizabeth, NJ 07202.